NU Adds Games with Cincinnati, Alters NIU Series

By NU Athletic Communications

| 07/18/2013

Nebraska has completed a contract for a future home-and-home football series with the University of Cincinnati, the schools announced on Thursday. Nebraska also announced that it has finalized its 2016 non-conference football schedule.

The series with Cincinnati will begin with the Bearcats visiting Memorial Stadium on Sept. 12, 2020. The Huskers will make a return trip to Cincinnati on Sept. 13, 2025. The contests in 2020 and 2025 are the first non-conference games on Nebraska’s schedule for those respective seasons.

Cincinnati is a member of the American Athletic Conference and has played in a bowl game in 11 of the past 13 seasons, including BCS appearances following the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Nebraska and Cincinnati have met just once all-time on the football field, with the previous matchup coming more than a century ago. Nebraska defeated Cincinnati in Lincoln, 41-0, in the 1906 season.

The scheduling agreement with Cincinnati also includes a home-and-home series in men’s basketball. The Huskers will travel to Cincinnati in the 2013-14 campaign, with the Bearcats making a trip to Pinnacle Bank Arena during the 2014-15 season.

Nebraska also announced on Thursday that it has revised its contract for future games with Northern Illinois University. Nebraska and NIU had been scheduled for a three-game series, including two games in Lincoln and a neutral site contest at Soldier Field in Chicago. However, with the Big Ten Conference moving to a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2016, Nebraska needed to alter its 2016 non-conference slate.

The 2016 contest between the two schools at Soldier Field has been canceled, completing Nebraska’s non-conference schedule for that season. In 2016, Nebraska will play Fresno State, Tennessee and Wyoming in Lincoln before beginning its nine-game Big Ten schedule.

Although Nebraska and Northern Illinois will not play in 2016, the schools did announce that they have added two additional games at Memorial Stadium. Northern Illinois will now travel to Lincoln four times between 2017 and 2023 as part of the revised contract between the schools. NIU was previously scheduled for trips to Lincoln in 2017 and 2019, and now will also take on the Huskers in 2021 and 2023.

The schools also announced that the first of those four games has been moved to Sept. 16, 2017. The game had previously been scheduled for Sept. 2, 2017. NIU will also play in Lincoln on Sept. 14, 2019, and the two newly scheduled games will take place on Sept. 4, 2021 and Sept. 16, 2023.

The 2021 and 2023 games are the second non-league games on NU’s schedule each of those two seasons. The Huskers’ 2021 non-conference schedule also includes a trip to Oklahoma, while the 2023 slate also includes a trip to Colorado.